By Murielle Delaporte
Even at the height of the Cold War, Washington and Moscow always managed to maintain a means of communication via diplomatic channels and bilateral summits.
The Riyadh summit follows the same logic — as did the Reykjavik summit four decades ago, for example.
The ties and modes of communication between the two countries have steadily deteriorated since the last summit in 2021 between President Biden and the head of the Kremlin.
Re-establishing these channels of communication is therefore only the first stage of a peace process that could prove long and not necessarily successful, but which is intended to test the seriousness of Russia’s intentions when they say they are interested in a return to peace in Ukraine.
This assumption was reiterated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an interview conducted by independent journalist Catherine Herridge (formerly of ABC, Fox News and CBS) on 20 February, during which he confirmed that the other stakeholders in the upcoming negotiations — Ukraine and their European counterparts — were of course in consultation and clarified the Trump administration’s policy as follows:
‘The first [thing to understand] is that even at the height of the Cold War, even at its worst, the United States and the Soviet Union communicated. And the reason is simple: if you want to be mature and responsible, you have to understand that, although I don’t agree with most of Vladimir Putin’s actions, this is largely irrelevant when it comes to diplomacy. Because ultimately we must be able to engage with a nation that has, in some cases, the largest stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons in the world and the second or even the largest stockpile of strategic nuclear weapons in the world.
Whether we like it or not, Russia is a world power, involved and engaged in Syria, the Middle East, Europe and even the Western Hemisphere. So we need to maintain some communication with them. The first step is that our embassy in Moscow is barely functioning. It is literally ceasing to operate because it no longer has access to the banking system. This problem must be resolved. If we close our diplomatic mission in Russia, then we will have to close their mission here, and we will no longer have any channel of communication with them, whether it be for the release of a detained American or for any other matter.
The second thing to understand is that the president has been very clear: he wants this war with Ukraine to end, and he wants to know whether the Russians are serious about ending the conflict or not. The only way to find out is to test them, to engage them in a dialogue and ask them: are you really prepared to end this war, and if so, what are your demands? Are their public demands different from their private demands? We have to establish a process to engage in this conversation.
We may find that they don’t want to end the war. We’re going to find out. But we have to have this process to determine it. So our meeting was essentially a follow-up to President Trump’s conversation with Putin.
It is unfortunate that some of the exaggerations and hysteria around the simple fact that he spoke to him on the phone have obscured the real reason for this discussion. Ultimately, we need to have relations with Russia, whether or not we like everything they do, as we did with the Soviet Union. And we must be able to verify whether they are serious about ending this war. (…)
But the main purpose of this meeting was to determine whether they were interested in finding a solution to this conflict. (…)
We are going to find out. I always say that peace is not just a word, it is an action. It is not a noun, it is a verb, a concrete approach. It must be actively sought. In the end, they are either interested or they are not. If their conditions for ending the war are maximalist and unrealistic, then we will have our answer. If, on the other hand, there is a possibility, no matter how small, of pursuing peace, we must seize it. (…)
I cannot yet say whether Russia is serious about peace or not. That will be determined by their attitude in the coming discussions. The only thing we have agreed on is to talk about it. What they propose, what they are prepared to give up or consider will determine whether they are really serious about peace. We are simply not there yet.
This was first published in French on Operationnels on February 25, 2025.